Posts Tagged "toddlers"

Retrieved from the post office today: one package too large for the slot in my door addressed to May. A late birthday gift? No. Six nappies. May turned five a week ago. That is one year since she was eligible for free nappies (AKA diapers for my American friends). A year of nappies we have purchased for May, at our expense – and in return, SIX. Children in the UK who cannot be potty trained receive free nappies on the NHS once they turn four. And so, I find myself with six nappies. For the past year, I’ve been begging for… six nappies. I should add the package, which I...

Last week on BabyCenter, I mused over whether parents should have another child – and specifically I was thinking of parents of children with special needs, but it could be anyone who just loves babies and is an enormous sap. Should you have another baby? Here’s the answer: Three years ago, I felt like an absolute lunatic when I reluctantly admitted to my husband what’d I’d been mulling over for the past six months. “Sometimes,” I said, “I think about having another baby.” “I’d have another baby with you,” he returned with a...

Congratulations to May and I ! This is our 400th post on Mama Lewis. Thanks for reading and happy holidays! To say I’m done with 2013 is an understatement. If someone offered me a lobotomy tomorrow and said, “We can remove 2013, but we’d have to remove everything, not just from about April when May’s hips began to really trouble her. You’d have to erase everything. May’s birthday at Kew Gardens. Your fun day at the London Zoo. Everything.” I’d say, “How soon can you cut me open?” Many people like to look at the positive side to...

A few mornings ago, my husband was taking a shower and so didn’t hear May have a seizure. She cries in a thin and tremulous voice, and it is filled with terror. She still has at least one seizure like this a day, which is much better than it used to be. My husband was letting me sleep in, so I didn’t hear it either. Very softly, there was a knock at my door. “Mama?” a little voice said. “May-May’s crying.” I rushed out and held her in time to comfort her. Later that morning, Ieuan made himself shake. Just like May, his arms went rigid and his fingers...

As if our children don’t already feel like royalty, why not treat them like it! And, so it was that I celebrated my 40th birthday properly. Not rushed in a quick meal down the road. Not rushed with a toast over dinner sitting in front of the television. I took myself and my family and friends and stayed in a palace, Hampton Court Palace, for the weekend. Children pick up on the atmosphere of their parents. May, too. She has a long history of sensing negative situations. I worried that the kids wouldn’t enjoy it, because after all – despite what I said above, I would...